Difference between revisions of "Bruhn2015"

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(Created page with "{{BibEntry |BibType=ARTICLE |Author(s)=Anders Bruhn |Title=Changing Occupational Roles in Audit Society—The Case of Swedish Student Aid Officials |Tag(s)=Workplace; Organiza...")
 
 
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|BibType=ARTICLE
 
|BibType=ARTICLE
 
|Author(s)=Anders Bruhn
 
|Author(s)=Anders Bruhn
|Title=Changing Occupational Roles in Audit Society—The Case of Swedish Student Aid Officials
+
|Title=Changing occupational roles in audit society: the case of Swedish student aid officials
 
|Tag(s)=Workplace; Organizations; Institutional talk; EMCA
 
|Tag(s)=Workplace; Organizations; Institutional talk; EMCA
 
|Key=Bruhn2015
 
|Key=Bruhn2015
 
|Year=2015
 
|Year=2015
|Month=March
+
|Language=English
 
|Journal=Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies
 
|Journal=Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies
 
|Volume=5
 
|Volume=5
 
|Number=1
 
|Number=1
|Pages=31-50
+
|Pages=31–50
|URL=http://ojs.ruc.dk/index.php/njwls/article/viewFile/4764/2449
+
|URL=https://tidsskrift.dk/njwls/article/view/26702
|Abstract=This article is about occupational change concerning a non-professional group of Street Level
+
|DOI=10.19154/njwls.v5i1.4764
Bureaucrats—student aid officials at the Swedish Board for Study Support (SBSS). The aim is to
+
|Abstract=This article is about occupational change concerning a non-professional group of Street Level Bureaucrats—student aid officials at the Swedish Board for Study Support (SBSS). The aim is to describe and analyze changes in their occupational role—their discretional space and working conditions under the impact of changed ways to manage public service organizations and new information and communication technology. The SBSS is the sole administrator of student financial aid in Sweden. Its officials investigate and take decisions about students’ applications and repayment of loans. This work includes interacting with clients via telephone and computer. These officials have to have a certain amount of discretion to interpret and apply rules and regulations on specific circumstances in individual cases. How are their working conditions affected by organizational and policy changes in the authority? How is their ability to exercise influence and control over their own work performance affected? The analysis highlights how officials suffer from decreased discretion and an increasing routinization in their work. This is a result of a regulatory framework continuously growing in detail together with increasing management control based on new information and communication technology. What remains of discretion is a kind of ‘task’ discretion, the ability to do minor technical manipulations of rules in individual cases. Even today’s top management seems critical of this development. Besides further automatization and reduction of staff an ongoing process of organizational change is therefore also aiming to develop officials’ competence and working conditions toward what may be seen as organizational professionalism, a development of specific occupational skills and a discretion adjusted and subordinated to managerial means and ends. The analysis rests on data from a research project (2011 to 2014) about Institutional Talk. Data sources are qualitative interviews, audio-taped speech sequences, observational field notes, and official documents.
describe and analyze changes in their occupational role—their discretional space and working
 
conditions under the impact of changed ways to manage public service organizations and new
 
information and communication technology. The SBSS is the sole administrator of student financial
 
aid in Sweden. Its officials investigate and take decisions about students’ applications and
 
repayment of loans. This work includes interacting with clients via telephone and computer. These
 
officials have to have a certain amount of discretion to interpret and apply rules and regulations
 
on specific circumstances in individual cases. How are their working conditions affected by
 
organizational and policy changes in the authority? How is their ability to exercise influence and
 
control over their own work performance affected? The analysis highlights how officials suffer
 
from decreased discretion and an increasing routinization in their work. This is a result of a regulatory
 
framework continuously growing in detail together with increasing management control
 
based on new information and communication technology. What remains of discretion is a kind
 
of ‘task’ discretion, the ability to do minor technical manipulations of rules in individual cases. Even
 
today’s top management seems critical of this development. Besides further automatization and
 
reduction of staff an ongoing process of organizational change is therefore also aiming to develop
 
officials’ competence and working conditions toward what may be seen as organizational professionalism,
 
a development of specific occupational skills and a discretion adjusted and subordinated
 
to managerial means and ends. The analysis rests on data from a research project (2011
 
to 2014) about Institutional Talk. Data sources are qualitative interviews, audio-taped speech
 
sequences, observational field notes, and official documents.  
 
 
}}
 
}}

Latest revision as of 04:22, 12 December 2019

Bruhn2015
BibType ARTICLE
Key Bruhn2015
Author(s) Anders Bruhn
Title Changing occupational roles in audit society: the case of Swedish student aid officials
Editor(s)
Tag(s) Workplace, Organizations, Institutional talk, EMCA
Publisher
Year 2015
Language English
City
Month
Journal Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies
Volume 5
Number 1
Pages 31–50
URL Link
DOI 10.19154/njwls.v5i1.4764
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

This article is about occupational change concerning a non-professional group of Street Level Bureaucrats—student aid officials at the Swedish Board for Study Support (SBSS). The aim is to describe and analyze changes in their occupational role—their discretional space and working conditions under the impact of changed ways to manage public service organizations and new information and communication technology. The SBSS is the sole administrator of student financial aid in Sweden. Its officials investigate and take decisions about students’ applications and repayment of loans. This work includes interacting with clients via telephone and computer. These officials have to have a certain amount of discretion to interpret and apply rules and regulations on specific circumstances in individual cases. How are their working conditions affected by organizational and policy changes in the authority? How is their ability to exercise influence and control over their own work performance affected? The analysis highlights how officials suffer from decreased discretion and an increasing routinization in their work. This is a result of a regulatory framework continuously growing in detail together with increasing management control based on new information and communication technology. What remains of discretion is a kind of ‘task’ discretion, the ability to do minor technical manipulations of rules in individual cases. Even today’s top management seems critical of this development. Besides further automatization and reduction of staff an ongoing process of organizational change is therefore also aiming to develop officials’ competence and working conditions toward what may be seen as organizational professionalism, a development of specific occupational skills and a discretion adjusted and subordinated to managerial means and ends. The analysis rests on data from a research project (2011 to 2014) about Institutional Talk. Data sources are qualitative interviews, audio-taped speech sequences, observational field notes, and official documents.

Notes